Ill 
American Agriculturist, August 16, 1924 
August Chicken Chatter 
Save Labor With 
W ITH farm labor hard to get and 
harder to keep, poultrymen can 
profitably let the chickens feed themselves 
from a hopper. 
“Put the grain, mash, oyster shells, 
water, and anything else you feed in 
hoppers, keep them filled, and don’t 
worry,” writes G. S. Vickers, poultry 
extension specialist at the Ohio State 
University. 
“Hopper-feeding is one labor-saver,” 
Hr. Vickers continues. “It gives good 
results. But be sure the hoppers are in 
cool, shady places and protected from 
rain so that no wet, moldy feed is before 
the chickens. 
Milk an Ideal Food 
“Milk is the one article of feed that 
will help more than any others to keep 
your birds in production. 
“Of course, hens will continue to 
produce in the summer just so long as 
they continue to eat large amounts of 
mash. At this time many birds cease to 
eat enough to keep them in production. 
Some means of keeping up the mash 
consumption must be used. The two 
most popular methods are (1) confine¬ 
ment until noon with little or no grain, 
and (2) feeding of moist mash, usually at 
noon. 
“Last year we had one flock owner who 
fed no mash to his flock all year, probably 
because he doubted its value. His 
average production for the year was 49 
eggs a hen. His profit was minus to the 
tune of 9 cents a bird.” 
Leg-Band the Sitters 
A FEW weeks ago we were out home 
and as is always the case with the 
children, our little youngster wanted to 
collect the eggs, but she was rather timid 
about tackling the job alone so we went 
along. At the very first nest she stopped 
short. There was a hen on it and it was 
a case of “Daddy, you get the eggs in 
that nest.” * 
The old Biddy sitting there eyed me 
carefully and then made a break for the 
open country. I managed to catch her 
and put her in the cooler. As I locked her 
up I could not help but think of how 
many thousands of hens spend most of the 
summer doing that very thing, trying to 
hatch out a whole dinner set from an old 
china egg. 
Many a time have I heard a poultry- 
man say “That’s about all that old hen 
Feed Hoppers—Cull the 
does” referring to a perpetual sitter. 
And then he continues to let her live. 
Those hens are absolutely good for noth¬ 
ing. They may lay 50 or 60 eggs a year 
and spend the rest of the time keeping 
the nest warm. They are a losing proposi¬ 
tion and yet they manage to get away 
with it. One of the easiest ways to locate 
these perpetual sitters is to keep a supply 
of leg bands on hand, they are cheap, and 
attach another band to the leg every time 
the sitting stunt is repeated. At the end 
of the year a man can go through his 
flock and without the possibility of a 
failure, pick out those .hens t that are 
not worth their keep. 
There are two ways of disposing of 
these birds. One is to use them on the 
home table and keep down the meat bills. 
The other way is to sell them all off either 
to the local poultry buyer or to express a 
crate of them to the live poultry com¬ 
mission men in New York City or the 
nearest live poultry market. Of course, 
this doesn’t 'mean shipping them on while 
they are laying. You may as well get 
money out of them while you can. It is 
a better idea to wait for the time when fat 
fowls are in demand and the price is up. 
Usually you will find that the hen with 
all the leg bands isn’t laying enough to 
pay when fat fowls are in demand to war¬ 
rant keeping. 
Incidentally, when the sitters are thus 
eliminated those remaining make a more 
desirable flock of breeders.—F. W. Ohm. 
Whitewash for the Hen House 
Will you give me a formula for making whitewash. 
Do you think whitewash worthwhile in the poultry 
house? We have used waste engine oil on the roosts and 
dropping boards but have been told the rest of the house 
should be sprayed.—A Reader, New York. 
W ASTE engine oil is ideal on the roosts 
and dropping boards to kill lice and 
mites. Mites are in every little crack 
and crevice and unless a material such as 
heavy oil is used they will soon find a new 
place to multiply. The advantage in 
using oil lies in the fact that it is cheap, 
may be painted on and does not lose its 
strength right away. 
It is a fact that the rest of the house 
should be sprayed with some kind of 
disinfectant and it all depends on local 
conditions whether it will pay you to 
bother making your own whitewash or 
buy a ready prepared material. There 
are materials on the market that are so 
made up that it is merely necessary to 
Perpetual Sitters 
add water and spray. Making white¬ 
wash at home is a lot of bother and if you 
have no other place to make it, except in 
the kitchen in the house, it causes a lot 
of mess for the housewife to clean up. 
That is only one instance where the com¬ 
mercial preparations are better. 
Whatever you use, though, it is cer¬ 
tainly wise to spray the rest of the house 
besides the roosts and dropping boards 
because lice and mites also find harbor 
there. Likewise other diseases may lurk 
in the house unless it is occasionally 
disinfected. 
How It Is Made 
Whitewash is made by placing about 
10 pounds of quicklime in a vessel, 
adding 2 gallons of water. It should be 
stirred if necessary to prevent burning. 
After th» mixture is complete the vessel 
should be covered with an old piece of 
burlap and allowed to stand for an hour. 
If too little water is used the lime will be 
completely slacked or hydrated. Further¬ 
more it will be burned and burnt lime is 
generally lumpy. Too much water on the 
other hand retards the slacking. After 
the mixture has stood about an hour it is 
ready for use. 
A simpler way to prepare this white¬ 
wash is to mix ordinary commercial lime 
with water until the proper brush con¬ 
sistency is obtained. However this 
material will not stand the weather and 
will rub off easily. 
Another interior whitewash is made 
by slacking 62 pounds (one bushel) of 
quick lime in 15 gallons of water. It is 
stirred occasionally to prevent scorching. 
The vessel is covered until the steam 
discontinues to arise from the mixture. 
Commercial hydrated lime may also be 
used, 80 pounds with enough water to 
reach a creamy consistency. Then mix 
2 pounds of dry flour with a half 
gallon of cold water, thinning this solu¬ 
tion with 2 gallons of boiling water. Then 
dissolve 2 >2 pounds of common salt in 
2 ^ gallons of hot water. Mix the rye 
flour solution and the salt solution and 
then add both of these to the lime solution 
and stir until the mash is thoroughly 
mixed. 
After the whitewash has been made its 
disinfectant qualities may be increased 
by adding crude carbolic acid. This is 
obtained at the local drug store. It is 
added at the rate of about 1 part of crude 
carbolic to 20 parts of whitewash. 
The Climax of a Long, Hard Fight 
(Continued from page 99) 
State where what was once a slow and 
orderly retreat has become a veritable 
flight. Apparently there are other 
localities where things are even worse 
than in this State. The last Outlook is 
authority for the statement that there is 
a certain Ohio township of ten thousand 
acres once tilled by a contented (I would 
not say prosperous) farm folk and today 
there are left just three families still 
clinging to their homes in the wilderness. 
Things like this cannot happen without 
being attended by some social tragedies. 
I am sure that we have not in New York 
any township where depopulation is as 
complete as this. Still, our Schoharie 
County Farm Bureau Manager Pollard, 
a man with a peculiarly intimate and 
sympathetic acquaintance with marginal 
land agriculture, has a story which I hope 
he will some day print, “ The Last Man in 
District 4.” 
It I had space I might wish to discuss 
the economic and more especially the 
social problems that grow out of farm 
abandonment. I do not believe for one 
moment that the emigrant will be the 
ultimate salvation of the Hill Country. 
In some cases he may hold the fort, but it 
fll |l be for one generation only. His 
children will flee as did their Yankee 
predecessors and much more readily 
because being without hereditary ties 
they will not even “cast one longing, 
lingering look behind.” I confidently 
expect and predict that the next fifty 
years will witness the practical depopula¬ 
tion of considerable areas of the rougher 
lands of the State. It is time that we had 
a definite State policy regarding this 
matter. I do not believe the State should 
waste money or effort in trying to stem 
the tide. In the long rim these changes 
make for the best good of every one 
although it is frequently an exceedingly 
painful process for some of the individuals 
concerned. I wish to make one concrete 
although not original suggestion. We 
already have a policy under which the 
State becomes the purchaser of lands 
lying within certain definite lines in the 
Adirondacks and Catskills and in this 
way there is being built up a State Park 
and Forest Preserve. Let this policy be 
broadened to cover the State everywhere, 
and let the State stand ready to auto¬ 
matically take over any land that may be 
offered at some small maximum price— 
say $5.00 per acre. Even at this price 
the State would eventually find itself the 
proprietor of considerable land but not 
enough would ever be offered in any one 
year to constitute any appreciable burden 
upon the finances of the State. This 
policy would hasten the clean-up of 
decadent districts. I would not urge the 
State to embark upon any ambitious 
scheme of reforestation but just to sort- 
of forget it and leave it alone. The fire 
hazard in young hardwood timber is not 
serious because the worst fires are the 
aftermath of lumbering operations. Na¬ 
ture as a tree planter works slowly yet 
after all wisely and efficiently. 
The economic trouble with forestry is 
that it is a very long time proposition. 
Human life is relatively short and uncer¬ 
tain and no man can really be blamed for 
failing to become enthusiastic over 
forestry when it will be his grandchildren 
rather than he that will reap the harvest. 
But this does not really greatly matter 
with the State because the State, like a 
corporation, is immortal. It can afford to 
wait and not hurry. Some day we shall 
establish a policy along these lines. 
Meanwhile I do reverence to the Hill 
Farmer, even if his end draws nigh. He 
has done Herculean labors and been an 
epic figure in the development of our 
State. He is the last of a line of brave and 
hardy and self-reliant men who reared a 
civilization under special difficulties. He 
passes and again repeats the cry of the 
gladiators of old Rome, “We who are 
about to die salute you.” 
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BABY 
CHICKS 
Super-Quality July Chicks 
MATCHES JULY 20, AUO. 3, 12 and 13 
Strickler’s Tancred-Barron Large Type 
ENGLISH S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 
Pens headed by Tancred 285-egg line cock¬ 
erels and Lady Storrs 271-egg line cocks and 
cockerels, mated to hens bred for extra 
heavy egg production. PRICES: $8.00 per 
100: $38.00 per 500; $75.00 per 1000 by Spe¬ 
cial Delivery Parcel Post Prepaid. 100% live delivery 
guaranteed. 10% books order. 
LEONARD F. STRICKLER SHERIDAN, PA. 
BABY CHICKS 
Per 100 Per 500 
ASSORTED CHICKS. $6.50 $30.00 
S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS_ 7.00 32.50 
BARRED ROCKS. 8.50 40.00 
BUFF ROCKS. 9.50 45.00 
R. I. REDS... 7. . . 9.50 45.00 
S. L. WYANDOTTES, a limited amount, at 12c each. 
100% safe arrival guaranteed. Parcel post paid. 
The Richfield Hatchery, Box 166, Richfield, Pa. 
FREE RANGE STOCK 
Mixed Stock .... $7 per 100 
S. C. W. Leghorns $8 per 100 
C fbT* Barred Rocks.... $9 per 100 
fifPostage Paid. Live Arrival 
niA Guaranteed. 
JUNIATA POULTRY FARM, RICHFIELD, PA. 
5,000 PULLETS 5,000 
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 
RHODE ISLAND REDS 
S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 
Ready for shipment at $1.00 each 
HECLA POULTRY FARM 
Bellefonte, Pa. 
BABY CHICKS, 
that are hatched 
to grow. Barred 
Rocks 15c, Buff 
Rocks 17c, Reds 16c, S. C. White and Brown Leg¬ 
horns 13c, Mixed 10c. Prepaid 100% live deliv¬ 
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order direct from this ad. or write for circular. 
J. W. KIRK, Box 55, McAIisterville, Pa. 
Chick Price Smashed 
Order from this Ad. 
Mixed and, Assorted, 100, $7 I S. C. W. Leghorns, 100. $8 
S. C. B. Rdcks.100, $10 I S. C. R. I. Reds. . 100, $10 
Live arrival guaranteed. Delivery free. 
TROUP BROS., R. D. No. 3, MILLERSTOWN, PA. 
D A DV rUIY From heavy laying free range flocks. 
DAD I UniA S. O. White Leghorns, 100, S7; S. C. 
Brown Leghorns, 100, $7; Barred Rocks, 100, $9; S. C. 
R. I. Reds, 100, $10; Broilers or Mixed Chix, 100, $6.50. 
Special prices on 500 and 1,000 lots. 100% prepaid safe 
delivery guaranteed. Address 
J. N. NACE, Box 30, RICHFIELD, PA. 
W E are NOW booking orders for 12 weeks’ old 
White Leghorn Pullets. All Pullets farm 
raised, milk fed, hatched from extra heavy lay¬ 
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and Ducklings at reduced prices. 
IDYLDELL FARM, Wolcott, New York 
When writing to Advertisers 
Be sure to say you saw it 
in American Agriculturist. 
